(Don’t) Shoot the Messenger

Your Messenger Apps Are Failing You.

After raising $1.7 billion in their token sale, Telegram announced they are abandoning their TON blockchain project and Gram cryptocurrency integration. WhatsApp hired a policy team to integrate blockchain in Africa, and Facebook’s Libra cryptocurrency never made it off the ground. Most recently, Line from Japan launched their blockchain and token, while South Korean messaging giant Kakao Talk announced plans to launch their own ‘Kakao coin’ via ICO this year. But even with billions of dollars of funding, none of these companies have produced a product that solves social messaging’s biggest failures in user privacy and data security, let alone integrating their products with blockchain.

What’s insane is that these fundamental violations of privacy and security are built directly into the foundation of their platforms, and agreed to when you check the box on the terms of use. This is the case with Facebook’s policy of scanning your Messenger conversations to uphold ‘Community Standards’.

What people believe:
All of my messengers are encrypted, it even says so when I start a new message.

Reality: On WhatsApp and Facebook Messenger, your messages are scanned and read by AI before being encrypted “for your protection”. WhatsApp exposes user’s phone numbers publicly and allows downloading of entire chat histories, including those phone numbers associated with their messages and media in group chats.

Your Telegram messages are not encrypted unless you intentionally start a new secret chat. Which means your 1–1 chats, and those big channels you love are completely exposed. Telegram has become a favored, prime target for scammers who can easily create fake profiles for prominent public figures. What’s worse, the bots you use to fight the spam can also read and store every message.

But wait, there’s more! Those aren’t even the most epic failures: If you missed these news headlines, here are a few of the more menacing recent events:

• On May 22nd, 2018, “A glitch caused up to 14 million Facebook users to have their new posts inadvertently set to public”. — Wired Magazine
• In September 2018, it was discovered that “Facebook knew about a huge security flaw that let hackers steal personal data from millions of its users almost one year before the crime, yet failed to fix it in time”. — Telegraph
• In May 2019, “WhatsApp admitted a major cybersecurity breach that has enabled targeted spyware to be installed on phones through voice calls.” — Forbes
• In July 2019, a political crisis erupted in Puerto Rico as their Governor, Ricardo A. Rosselló, was asked to resign over leaked Telegram chats detailing numerous inappropriate conversations with cabinet members. Labeled #Telegramgate, the scandal became the island’s Telemundo that week, sending over one-third of the population to the streets in protest. — New York Times
• In June 2019, Kakao Games suffered a security breach of confidential Black Desert Online user account data, “The studio reported in a recent forum post that a number of users have had their unencrypted passwords, emails, and Kakao Cash history posted on various public websites and platforms forcing them to lock the said accounts and reset their passwords pending verification from the original owner.” — MMOS.com
• In September 2019, it was reported that “High-profile Tibetans have seen their Apple iPhones and Android devices targeted by hacks delivered in WhatsApp messages. All that was required for their device to have a permanent tracker installed on their mobile was a single click of the link within the WhatsApp text, researchers claimed. It’s being labeled the most sophisticated attack on Tibetans yet, after attempts were made to steal WhatsApp and Facebook chats as well as locations with some novel techniques.” — Forbes

I will go over my character limit if attempting to cite all of the headlines of security breaches relating to passwords being hacked or stolen. Facebook continuously exposes 100s of millions of users to security flaws and even Twitter had their entire user password data stored in plain text for employees to access.

On a more personal level, when I first discovered I was pregnant with our daughter Aurora, I suddenly began receiving ads for baby supplies and maternity wear in my Instagram feed, and a major increase in babies in my Facebook feed before I had shared the news publicly or beyond my closest friends and family. My assumption is that my “private” WhatsApp or Facebook Messenger conversations began retargeting me for ads the moment I mentioned those trigger keywords. Sophisticated AI was watching me as a high-value target ever since I posted my public engagement announcement and wedding photos.

These massive social messaging players are striving to include crypto and falling short, while simultaneously neglecting the fact that they are trampling their users’ rights to privacy and security for an extra buck. With their success record as of late, why should we continue allowing the security of OUR social networks to be completely in the hands of these third party, corporate entities that prioritize their profits over our security? The answer is: we shouldn’t. They think they’re too big to fail. They think they are too powerful to be called out. They aren’t.

We know you, the global community and loyal app user base, are as fed up as we are. We urge you to get more information on the platforms you’re using, and the way they’re using your data. And we want you to know that an alternative is coming!

We’re doing things differently at Make Sense Labs. Our team is working hard on multi-blockchain functionality, and building a better, crypto-enabled messenger tools to connect and empower the humans in our community. We believe in delighting our users, not spying on them. Your data is not our business. Soon, you’ll have the ability to participate in the security of the network alongside our developers and experts and be rewarded. You’ll be able to chat securely with friends, and discover new ways to build valuable, engaged communities with crypto in a multi-blockchain proficient messaging app. We have so much in store and we can’t wait to share it with you.

If the prophecy of the infamous cartoon series “The Simpsons’” again rings true, and cryptocurrency IS the cash of the future, we’re going to need user-secured, private communication channels to interact with each other and our digital currencies.

With the new secure messenger Sense Chat, we’re doing just that. We’re building things right, for YOU, from the start.

A better messenger is coming.

Get early access to Sense Chat at signup.sense.chat